Alice
"who is Alice?" my mother screamed, holding my father by the waist. My father in his huge frame brushed her aside, she was barely two inches above his waist in height but very strong as she sprung up and slapped him.
"Deolu? Are you mad? Have you gone mad? " My father screamed back, holding her neck as if to strangle her. I covered my brother's eyes and we both started crying.
This was the usual evening in our home, Yomi and I usually got back home from school at 6pm daily with our mother who worked as a clerk in a shipping firm that was three streets away from our school. My father usually returned home from work when we had gone to bed, we always knew when he came in because we always heard him and my mother argue about his late nights, they always argued till we hear my mother's voice crack and next thing sobs. He never seemed bothered because what always followed was shower noise and few minutes later loud snore.
However, this night was different, my mother had cried all the way through from our school to the house, she managed to feed us when we got home and every now and then, she would look into a picture she was holding and it seemed whenever she looked into it, she cried even more. I was 8, my brother Yomi was 5, we couldn't understand why our parents always shouted at each other and why mother cried more than she laughed. The only time my mother laughed was when visitors were around on Sunday afternoons, she and my father were two entirely different people on Sundays, they even held hands and he would even kiss her. I always looked forward to Sundays - afternoon that is because as soon as the visitors leave, they go back to the shouting and fighting, most times over drinks served or what my mother said when the visitors were around.
"D-daddy stop" it was Yomi who cried out. My mother was gasping for breath. I rushed to my father and bit him, turning around, he spanked me so hard but my mother was able to get up. She dashed to the kitchen but on returning to the living room, my father already left the house. Throwing the pestle on the floor, she sat on the floor and cried her eyes out. I slept off on the couch that night wondering who Alice was and why she caused so much pain in my family, I did not know her but I hated her already, even more than I hated my father. Their marriage could not survive after that night, my mother took us to her family house and separated from my father. This made me even hate Alice more, she was the reason my classmates made fun of me I thought.
This was 20 years ago, I am now a 28 years old woman, working in a good company with a very good salary, I can say I live a very comfortable life, have great friends but I am in love with another woman's husband just how Alice may have been in love with my father 20 years ago. It has been a constant battle of what I want and what I know is wrong since I met Ovie, he has everything I want in a man except having a wife. I can not help but imagine if he treats his wife the way my father treated my mother, if they fight and argue in front of their children after getting home late because we spent time together after work, if his wife would ever scream at him one night asking who Sola is and if she would ever slap him and he in turn try to strangle her, will their child distract him, will she dash in to get a pestle, will he be unlucky and still be there and she hits him and he dies? Questions in my head as I gradually become the woman I have hated so much even without knowing her for the last 20 years.
"Deolu? Are you mad? Have you gone mad? " My father screamed back, holding her neck as if to strangle her. I covered my brother's eyes and we both started crying.
This was the usual evening in our home, Yomi and I usually got back home from school at 6pm daily with our mother who worked as a clerk in a shipping firm that was three streets away from our school. My father usually returned home from work when we had gone to bed, we always knew when he came in because we always heard him and my mother argue about his late nights, they always argued till we hear my mother's voice crack and next thing sobs. He never seemed bothered because what always followed was shower noise and few minutes later loud snore.
However, this night was different, my mother had cried all the way through from our school to the house, she managed to feed us when we got home and every now and then, she would look into a picture she was holding and it seemed whenever she looked into it, she cried even more. I was 8, my brother Yomi was 5, we couldn't understand why our parents always shouted at each other and why mother cried more than she laughed. The only time my mother laughed was when visitors were around on Sunday afternoons, she and my father were two entirely different people on Sundays, they even held hands and he would even kiss her. I always looked forward to Sundays - afternoon that is because as soon as the visitors leave, they go back to the shouting and fighting, most times over drinks served or what my mother said when the visitors were around.
"D-daddy stop" it was Yomi who cried out. My mother was gasping for breath. I rushed to my father and bit him, turning around, he spanked me so hard but my mother was able to get up. She dashed to the kitchen but on returning to the living room, my father already left the house. Throwing the pestle on the floor, she sat on the floor and cried her eyes out. I slept off on the couch that night wondering who Alice was and why she caused so much pain in my family, I did not know her but I hated her already, even more than I hated my father. Their marriage could not survive after that night, my mother took us to her family house and separated from my father. This made me even hate Alice more, she was the reason my classmates made fun of me I thought.
This was 20 years ago, I am now a 28 years old woman, working in a good company with a very good salary, I can say I live a very comfortable life, have great friends but I am in love with another woman's husband just how Alice may have been in love with my father 20 years ago. It has been a constant battle of what I want and what I know is wrong since I met Ovie, he has everything I want in a man except having a wife. I can not help but imagine if he treats his wife the way my father treated my mother, if they fight and argue in front of their children after getting home late because we spent time together after work, if his wife would ever scream at him one night asking who Sola is and if she would ever slap him and he in turn try to strangle her, will their child distract him, will she dash in to get a pestle, will he be unlucky and still be there and she hits him and he dies? Questions in my head as I gradually become the woman I have hated so much even without knowing her for the last 20 years.
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